The Beer’s Companion!

The weather called for ice cold beer and snacks. And we were in a mood to try out something new. I had soaked Garbanzo beans to make some hummus, but the order of the hour was something SPICY! So I took a detour and tried my hands at ‘beer chana’.

What’s that you ask? Well it’s that awesome snack that ended up burning our lips and making us gulp our beer faster! 🙂

It was not too difficult or time consuming to make either. Mind you, the beer was out of the fridge already so we need to make it before the beer gets too warm to our liking! Here is how we prepared it:

Step number one for this was to first open a bottle of beer and take a few gulps. Burp. (that’s optional)

Step number two was pressure cooking the garbanzo beans with a pinch of salt and an even smaller pinch of turmeric.( I just love that spice and tend to use it even in recipes which don’t call for it! There’s something very nice and appealing about the yellow color it renders to a dish.)

Since this was the first time we were making this, we needed a back up snack. So in went peanuts with a little salt in a separate vessel along with the beans. These are a family favorite!

Now, coming back the beans, I didn’t want them to be over cooked they needed to be just about cooked. It took about 12-15 minutes and 3 whistles in our pressure cooker. Once we drained the beans and let them sit for about 10 minutes to cool down. It’s easier to add spices when they aren’t steaming hot.

Then I added red chili powder, cumin powder, aamchur (dry mango powder) and about 2 tablespoons of oil and layered the beans on a baking sheet layered with aluminum foil. They were baked at 400 F for about 40-45 minutes.

They tasted great! They weren’t as crispy as they would’ve been if they’d been deep fried. But they served their purpose well. Along with the boiled peanuts they made our evening!

Let’s call them Beer Chana I say!

P.S – Next time I try making these, I’d definitely add more oil and a few curry leaves to add more punch.

I do have to admit that my better half took the lead in this and my contribution was limited to picking the beer and taking pictures 🙂